The Bastardization of Pro Football: A Rant among other things.

Let me say that I'm an elitist. You can best be assured to find me in the trendiest bars, fanciest restaurants and with the finest of company (like much of this site for instance) but my snob appeal expands to unprecedented levels when it comes to football.

Whether it be educating the lemmings on the Palmer, Cowhard chokeage or so and so sucking, I do my civic duty in educated those who weren't so fortunate to be educated by Western PA's finest but alas you make do. Football has definetely caught on within the last 10 years. Fantasy football, odds, spread and over/under have crept into our Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday lexicons. Bars are now filled to the brim on Sunday with loads of people dressed in various jerseys and laptops and even notebooks.

The altruist in me likes the fact that I could literally talk football to anyone now days. It sure beats the dullness of hey, how are you, what do you do, etc. But the cynic in me loathes the fact that our once exclusive game has reached the far masses, i.e) douchebags.

Sunday bar fests now include the token jabs from not only the hometown/rival fans but now from Joe E. Douchebag who happens to be rooting against your team because he has Ahman Green. Heck there are even "fans" of ones own team who are excited over TJ Doucheman's touchdown than the very same touchdown of the team whose jersey this douche proudly displays.

I guess this bothers me for whatever reason. Growing up it was always one team you could root for and everyone else was shit. Sure you'd have a few oddballs who have allegiances to other teams but I'm from the school of thought you can only have one team per sport. Too many people in my daily encounters seem to teeter on the brink of Jets/Giants, Isles/Rags or even Yankees/Mets which to me are ALL retarded. I guess I can see the Jets/Giants argument but Isles/Rags or Mets/Yankees? Really?

As a non-native New Yorker, I guess this puzzles me. This was unheard of in Pittsburgh. It was always Buccos, Stillers and Guins. No more no less. Sure they sucked at various points but you'd still root for em. Whatever I can live with this overall but when some fucking douche in a Kansas City jersey starts cheering for LT because he scores a td against my team, I get a little offended.

DUDE you are cheering for your divisional rival? I'd puke if I rooted anything Bungle or Rat
and yet these Johnny come latelys are. Pathetic. It gets worse with money involved which takes me to last Sunday.

The sad state of reality is that people were only talking about the the last play in this game. I can see that to an extent really because: a) shitty game, b) disappointing teams (yes a 7-3 team can be that) but still. This was a marquee matchup but instead of saying anything Steelers/Chargers it was about the refs. I have my beef with this too but more so the (13-1) calls against Steelers vs. Chargers) Anyway, here's the play in question:




Why is this such a big deal? Because too many people had people in the Steeler/Charger game in either fantasy or for simple gambling rules. Look I tend to agree that the NFL is somewhat fixed in the sense that the league but this new game within the game in football and its rapid ascension to the dregs of society makes me angry and the fact that every douchebag now has other things to root for on Sunday makes me angrier. Most like it because it gives them the opportunitity to watch all games and have some interest. Bullshit. Your team should give you all that no matter. This coming from a supporter of the Pittsburgh Butt Pirates.


You know what it is? I guess it just bothers me that people who normally don't even care if their team wins or loses now have this other vehicle to show their lack of true diehardism.

Here's some other things to look at:

The Wildcat Formation and How to Defend It, by Bill Cowher

I like articles like this and is interesting to see how Cowhard would defend this. Shockingly, his response wasn't 'kick the field goal' and 'let's go.'

Hog Index: Cold, Hard Football Facts is one of the best sites around and publish a weekly HOG index correlating offensive lines through various statistics. Naturally these aren't meant to be the be all and end all but it's interesting to see who their #1 rated O-Line is.Granted this metric doesn't take account of strength of schedule or injuries or anything like that it's still a neat little conversation starter.

Oh right, here's the pick for tonight's game: (I'm 16-7 btw so if you listen to anyone on this site, it might as well be me).

Cincinnati Bengals (+10.5) OVER Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bungles are banged up and bad. Steelers are good right? This should be easy. Not so fast eager beaver.

It's going to be cold, snowy and shitty out. The Bungs are playing well enough to keep this close and the Steelers are also playing shitty enough to keep this close. Steelers probably win but this is going to be close. For whatever reason, the Bungles also play the Steelers much better away from their cornholing Jungle and in reality, 10.5 points is WAY too much in this random of random seasons. Not to mention, it's a division game and this is probably the Bungles superbowl.

Oh btw, No Chode tonight so you really have no reason to watch this game unless this is one of your teams. So have fun watching the Office or the next installment of Grey's Anatomy.

Pittsburgh - 17
Cincy - 14